Lessig

Lawrence Lessig

Ever since the book “Free Culture” was recommended in boot camp and I didn’t have time to read it, I’ve been wanting to do so. So I was real pleased to see that watching a Lawrence Lessig video was one of our assignments for this class. I even thought it would be a good excuse to read the book. I did start the book and found the introduction difficult to understand. I thought it might help if I took notes on the introduction. In case they might be helpful to anyone else, I include them here - that is until I quit. I will say I also read the first chapter which I thought was easier to read. Then I watched the video. I can’t say I understood all of it, but I was quite pleasantly surprised to see the light hearted way that Lessig was able to deal with such a serious topic. After my summary and a few questions about the introduction, I’d like to offer my comments about the video.


INTRODUCTION TO FREE CULTURE

I found the introduction to this book rather difficult to understand. Therefore, I’m focusing much of this message to a simple summary of the beginning of the book.

Leasing begins by relating how the change of culture which is resulting from the internet has a historical precedence. He gives two examples. In the first, in 1945 a family named the Causbys filed a lawsuit against the U.S. government when military planes flew over their property. They based their suit on the fact that American law gave landowners air rights on the air above their property. When the planes flew low over their property, the Causby’s chickens got scared, flew into the walls of their barn and died. The Causbys claimed the government was trespassing on their land. The Supreme Court ruled that “Common sense revolts at the idea” and that this former doctrine had no place in the modern world.

The second example Lessig sites refer to a man named Edwin Howard Armstrong who was issued four patents in 1833 for his invention of FM radio. The problem in this story is that RCA found FM radio would be a threat to the AM system and therefore to the power which RCA had accrued. By it’s power of manipulation, RCA kept FM radio from spreading and Armstrong from benefitting from his important patents.

I’m not sure why RCA didn’t simply incorporate FM radio into their company since he was working for RCA. But for some reason he didn’t.

In the case of the Causbys, the innovation ruled, but in the case of FM radio, the RCA was a force that was powerful enough to stop the innovation from spreading.
Leasing distinguishes between “commercial culture” or “permission culture” which is that part ofhte culture which is produced to be sold. “Noncommercial culture” or “free culture” is that part of the culture which is given and there is no intent to sell it. The law has traditionally had a say about “commercial culture,” but not about free culture. In the past, there has been protection for those who create creative works so they can profit off of their work. However, it used to be much less of a part of our culture than it is now. Now that we have the internet, the line between that which is “free culture” and that which is “permission culture” has been disintegrated. Now the focus is more on being a permission culture.
What does he mean by this? Why does he say this?

Unfortunately, it is the businesses that are being protected and not the creating artists. Basically, the internet is a threat to television and radio since they are the industries which produce and distribute content and the internet can do so in a much broader way with many more people creating the content. Lessig argues that the industries which produce and distribute the content are using their influence to get legal protection so that the spread of the internet will not destroy them. Lessig argues that this is to the detriment of our culture.

The way this controversy or “war” is often framed is one of property rights against piracy.

Enough of my notes on the Introduction to Free Culture. Now for the video. I liked his refrain. I even liked his idea of writing a song about it. I”m not a song writer either, but I think it would be worth trying. For those of you who didn’t find it catchy enough to memorize, the words are:
“Creativity and innovation always builds on the past.
The past always tries to control the creativity that builds upon it.
Free societies enable the future by limiting this power of the past.
Ours is less and less a free society.”
(Leasing. http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/policy/2002/08/15/lessig.html)

Even after having passed (barely) LIS502, I hadn’t really thought much about the history of copyright before the last one hundred years or so. From Leasing, I learned that copyright was a controversial issue even back in England in the 1700s. In the early 1700s, it was just for fourteen years. Then in mid 1700s the London publishers said that copyright is forever because they didn’t want the Scottish publishers reprinting their classics. Then in 1774, they stopped copyright and that was the beginning of free culture or maybe that meant that copyright law was only for fourteen years. I can’t really tell, but either way, it’s a far cry from what it is today. That was when the America that is now the United States began.

I think it’s too bad our founders didn’t include some mention of that free culture in the Constitution or the Bill of Rights. But they didn’t.

In both his book and the video,Lessig tells about Walt Disney and how he was able to build his company by making changes in the works of others. Disney did so mainly with the stories of the Brothers Grimm. This is how creativity grows.

However, in the United States, that length of time has only expanded. In 1909, copyright was for 56 years and it has continued to increase. Somehow the Disney Corporation has had a key part in this. So now, others are not allowed to build on Disney like Disney built on the past.

I wish I understood all of this better and could comment more intelligently on it. Maybe after class today I will be able to do so. Right now I’m going to settle for trying to understand.